I can't figure out how to apply a material to an object. All I need to texture is a plane, the tutorials say for me to drag one of the sockets of my bitmap (yes I've found the bitmap) from the Material Editor window to the plane I want to texture. But whenever my cursor leaves said window while dragging it turns into a symbol implying I can't let go there. In the video (which is the tutorial that comes with and launches with the program) the cursor doesnt change and letting go actually does apply the texture.

Any ideas?

E: I just managed to drag the socket outside the window through a probably absurd means, but the texture doesn't apply, only grey. Any ideas now? btw feel free to answer the first question I still need to know a more conventional way to do it.
Edited by IcePhoenix on Jan 9, 2011 at 10:57 AM

Did you hit the checkered box?

You've got it applied but you have to tell max to either display no result, the entire material, or just the diffuse map. Press the checkered box, or by other means 'show map in viewport'.

You can also click and drag the material sphere onto the scene.

Thanks guys, I got it working (already forgot how, it's 4am here)